A terrific piece was penned by retired Navy SEAL Eric Greiten in the Wall Street Journal entitled, “An Inside Look At SEAL Sensibility“. In the piece, Eric discusses what it takes to become a SEAL and why some people succeed while others fail. Navy SEAL training is considered to be the most vigorous military training in the world. And “Hell Week” is considered to be the most difficult week during the most difficult training. Out of 220 people in the author’s class, only 21 people made it through.

So who are those that make it through? Are they the buff jocks and visually apparent warriors? Perhaps there are some. However Eric writes, “Some men who seemed impossibly weak at the beginning of SEAL training—men who puked on runs and had trouble with pull-ups—made it. Some men who were skinny and short and whose teeth chattered just looking at the ocean also made it. Some men who were visibly afraid, sometimes to the point of shaking, made it too.”

In other words, anybody can make it through the Challenge and there is no set mold.

THE ONE THING THAT KEPT PEOPLE GOING

In Eric’s interview with the Wall Street Journal, he said one thing that absolutely resonated with the Yakezie Network. During the 2:45 minute mark of the interview, Eric discusses what it takes to survive during the hardest days of training.

What makes SEALs special is not just their physical strength, its their mental and moral strength. In those moments of hypothermia, if you just start thinking about your own self, you will collapse and quit. But if at that moment, when you’re facing great pain and great challenge, you are able to think about the person to the left and right who need you, then you find the strength to go on. That’s what it takes to build this great team.

Making it through the 6 month Yakezie Challenge is cupcakes in comparison. However, practically everything is cupcakes compared to Navy SEALs training! You can replace blogging with dancing, music, racing, singing, and working for they each have their challenges, and many people give up too soon. As soon as we start thinking about how we can help others, we are rejuvenated with a new capsule of energy to continue on.

BE CAREFUL ABOUT TEMPTATIONS

If you focus too much about the monetary aspect of your endeavors, it will really start to alter all your motives. There will be a point where money becomes all consuming, and you will inevitably lose interest in something which provided you so much joy to begin with. Longevity is half the battle of achieving success. Actually, longevity could be even more.

You’ve got to constantly be evaluating what you are working towards. Some do things for pride, while others do things for money. At the heart of the Yakezie Network is simply a community of like-minded individuals who aspire to grow their sites, develop great relationships online and offline, and have a fantastic time in the process. If you aren’t having fun, you aren’t doing it right!

What are the things that keep you going during difficult times? Does money inevitably corrupt us all? How do we stop this from happening?

Why do you whine and complain when there are so many things that are so much more difficult and you have the power to change?

Financial Samurai is the founder of the Yakezie Network. Through continuing education and hard work, Sam believes everyone is able to achieve financial independence and give back to the community with abundance. Together we'll slice through money's mysteries!

Mental toughness is key in whatever you do. Based on some prior experiences, I knew that success does not often come quickly or easily in any endevour, and if it does, then you most likely have a very weak foundation.

I have recently had some ad opportunites come along for my site, and it is incredibly tough to turn some of them down! But, I know that if it will not help my readers, then it ultimately won’t help my general cause. And, it could even lead to my demise.

My focus is to provide great information to my readers, and if I follow that mantra, then the money will come, sooner or later.

We were discussing this at work the other day and came to the same conclusion. The large jocks were not the ones who typically make the cut, but the ones who are mentally tough whom you wouldn’t necessarily expect.

It’s interesting living in Virginia Beach, home of the now famous Seal Team 6. These anonymous warriors now have celebrity status, with radio stations saluting them 4 times an hour. I hope these individuals never become public figures. I’m certain they don’t want the limelight anyway. Team, this is such a powerful concept. No other organization embodies the concept better than the Seals. It’s definitely something to keep you grounded when looking at Alexa rankings.

Perseverance and self confidence will get you though the tough times. I know there are many thing in life much more difficult than blogging/working or anything that I do. I still complain though, I guess that’s human nature. At least I’m working on improving things while I complain. The SEAL team did a great job!

My fiance often tells me, and some of our friends with degrees, that we should consider joining the army, and that we can tough it out if some of the people he was in training with managed to pass. But even then, I think one of the things I couldn’t handle is the blind obedience which is expected of you.

During difficult times, I always concentrate on the goal or outcome! As long as I am making progress to my goal, I can stay motivated. If progress stops or stalls, I will try additional strategies to reach the goal. Money in itself does not motivate me. To me money is the reward for the success. Many times satisfaction replaces money as the reward.
Whining and complaining is the same as making excuses why you were unsuccessful. Successful people keep trying until they succeed. No excuses!

Money is indeed one of my goals, and I don’t think it should corrupt because if you’re making an honest living and not looking to cheat anyone, money comes from providing value to others.
That said I don’t think anyone should ever write *just* for the money cause then it would just be a job! That wouldn’t be very fun or interesting.

Very interesting post about the NAVY SEALS… gotta take an incredible amount of mental strength and fortitude to make it through. It’s amazing how much of life comes down to that.

@Invest It Wisely “money comes from providing value to others” – I can relate to this, however I think it’s important that as personal financial bloggers, we consider who we are providong value to. Is it our readers, or our sponsors?

Money should be a secondary motivator. The problem with the Yakezie Challenge is although we find support from one another, we are also at different stages of our blogs. Don’t have a fully flushed plan yet, but perhaps some seperation is needed between classes? I’ve learned a great deal from the veterans. But like the military, people in boot camp need to go through the basics and focus on the basics. For example, if they hear talk about going after Bin Laden (AdSense $1000) after a few months of training, they would feel out of place, inadequate, and confused.

Sometimes I wish I could take military training just for the invaluable skills you can learn from going there, this is a brilliant post and thanks for sharing it!

@Invest It Wisely I agree with your point about writing for the money, my primary purpose is to provide value and I try to remember that by striving to serve others money will follow.

There is a book on motivation that i’m reading at the moment called ‘Drive’ which points out exactly this post is saying: ‘using monetary rewards to inspire motivation for things we do for fun lowers the quality of results you generate!’

Yeah I agree with this. If it becomes too much about money then it becomes a job, and that’s no fun at all. There’s nothing wrong at all with getting money, and money can be a valid goal especially if you’re like me and you want to build up some side income. That said, it’s gotta be fun which means you have to look at the money as a benefit rather than the goal in and of itself. I think you’ll write better content if you enjoy what you’re writing as well.

SEALs are amazing and we are so fortunate to have them. Money definitely changes people and businesses. I love your point about thinking about how what we do helps others and not letting money consume all of our motivations.

I’m very proud to say that my brother is in the U.S. Navy. He told me a little bit about what he had to do when he tried out for the SEALS and it is a very intense process. However, he didn’t make it because his swimming skills were not up to par. But I’m also proud to say that he did save lives in Iraq a few years ago and he’s coming home from his 5 year stint in a few months!

Does money inevitably corrupt us all? I really liked this quote, I think money changes a person’s personality in many ways. But there are things that remain hidden or should I say cloaked. Money really runs our life nowadays :(

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